Mechanicsburg college student follows in steps of freedom

The importance of taking action to create change is what tracing the route of the 1961 Freedom Ride showed Mechanicsburg college student Robert Sgrignoli.

View full sizeRobert Sgrignoli, left, was one of 40 college students chosen to follow in the steps of the 1961 Freedom Riders in conjunction with a PBS documentary that aired May 16.

The Mercyhurst College junior was one of 40 college students chosen to follow in the steps of the 1961 Freedom Riders in conjunction with a PBS documentary that aired May 16. The trip traced the route taken by about 400 black and white men and women who rode together on buses in defiance of Jim Crow laws that segregated the races.

The most memorable moment, he said, was a meeting with Freedom Rider Hank Thomas in Anniston, Ala., who was on a bus firebombed by an angry crowd.

“He later served in Vietnam and received a Purple Heart, but this happened to him in the U.S. He served in the military of a country who oppressed him,” Sgrignoli said.

If meeting Thomas wasn’t enough, Sgrignoli said that in the audience was the son of one of the people who had firebombed Thomas’ bus. “They had a moment together. It was the most emotional part of the trip.”

Throughout the trip, which began May 6, Sgrignoli said he asked himself whether he would have done what the Freedom Riders did, “and if I would be willing to stare death in the face, and I’m still not sure.”

“These were ordinary people who did extraordinary things. ... They believed in the cause so much they were willing to die for it. That’s a very unique thing, and can’t be praised enough.”

The experience showed him how “changes happen from the bottom up. If you see something that’s not right you must be pissed off and do something.

“You can’t wait for things to happen. ...You have to stir things up.”

In the early 1960s, Sgrignoli said the leaders of the civil rights movements were telling the younger generation to be patient and these people said they were angry and tired of being patient, and they were going to make a change.

Seeing the original Freedom Riders get long overdue recognition was the best part of the journey, Sgrignoli said, which started in Washington, D.C., and ended in New Orleans.

When they arrived in New Orleans, Sgrignoli said they were greeted with a rally of several hundred people. He also got to meet people like John Seigenthaler, who had been an aide to Robert Kennedy during the movement.

Sgrignoli said he also found parallels in his life with some of the original Freedom Riders.

“Some were in the middle of final exams” when they decided to go on the ride rather than finish their semester, he said.

Like them, he had to wrestle with his college schedule and reschedule finals, some of which he won’t be able to take until next fall. He said he didn’t have time to study on the ride, since they were averaging four hours sleep each night.

He did take some finals when he returned. “I probably did a little sub-par,” he said, adding, “It was a small price to pay.

“When this opportunity came up, I said I’m definitely taking it,” Sgrignoli said.

He said he has been interested in civil rights and social justice for many years. The son of a first-generation Korean mother and an American-born Caucasian father, he has driven hundreds of miles to listen to speeches by Cornel West, philosopher, author and civil rights activist; and Michael Eric Dyson, considered by some to be one of the nation’s most influential black Americans.

As a sports medicine/pre-med major, Sgrignoli said he was the only college student with a science background on the trip. Most of the others were English and history majors, he said. At Mercyhurst he is president of a student diversity organization, and hopes to be a doctor working with underprivileged people.

The students’ journey was videotaped, and Sgrignoli said it might some day be part of a documentary special.

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